Bible Commentaries

It has been already remarked that Aaron and his sons represent Christ and the Church, but in the opening, verses of this chapter, Aaron gets the precedency. "And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water." The washing of water rendered Aaron, typically, what Christ is, intrinsically, holy. The Church is holy in virtue of her being linked with Christ in resurrection life. He is the perfect definition of what she is before God. The ceremonial act of washing with water expresses the action of the Word of God. (See Ephesians 5:26.) "For their sakes," says Christ, "I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." (John 17:19.) He separated Himself to God in the power of a perfect obedience, being governed in all things, as man, by the Word, through the eternal Spirit, in order that all those who belong to Him might be thoroughly separated by the moral power of the truth.

"Then shalt thou take the anointing oil and pour it upon his head and anoint him." (Ver. 7.) Here we have the Spirit; but let it be noted that Aaron was anointed before the blood was shed, because he stands before us as the type of Christ, who, in virtue of what He was, in His own Person, was anointed with the Holy Ghost, long before the work of the cross was accomplished. The sons of Aaron, on the other hand, were not anointed until after the blood was shed. "Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.* And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him." (Ver. 20, 21.) As regards the Church, the blood of the cross lies at the foundation of everything. She could not be anointed with the Holy Ghost until Her risen Head had gone into heaven, and laid upon the throne of the divine Majesty the record of His accomplished sacrifice. "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear." (Acts 2:32-33. Comp. also John 7:39; Acts 19:1-6.) From the days of Abel downward, souls had been regenerated, influenced, acted upon, and qualified for office by the Holy Ghost; but the Church could not be anointed with the Holy Ghost until her victorious Lord had entered heaven and received on her behalf the promise of the Father. The truth of this doctrine is taught, in the most direct and absolute manner, throughout the New Testament; and its strict integrity is maintained, in the type before us, by the obvious fact that, though Aaron was anointed before the blood was shed (ver. 7), yet his sons were not, and could not be, anointed till after. (Ver. 21.)

{*The ear, the hand, and the foot are all consecrated to God in the power of accomplished atonement, and by the energy of the Holy Ghost.}

But we learn more from the order of the anointing in our chapter, than the important truth with respect to the work of the Spirit, and the position of the Church. We have also set before us the personal pre-eminence of the Son. "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." (Psalms 45:7; Hebrews 1:9.) This must ever be held fast in the convictions and experience of the people of God. True, the infinite grace of God is set forth in the marvellous fact that guilty, hell-deserving sinners should ever be spoken of in such terms — should ever be styled the "fellows" of the Son of God; but let us never, for a moment, forget the word "above." No matter how close the union — and it is as close as God's eternal counsels of redeeming love could make it — yet, "in all things" Christ must "have the pre-eminence." It could not be otherwise. He is Head over all — Head of the Church — Head of creation — Head of angels — Lord of the universe. There is not a single orb that rolls along the heavens that does not belong to Him and move under His control. There is not a single worm that crawls along the earth which is not under His sleepless eye. He is "high over all," "the first-begotten from the dead," and "of the whole creation," "the beginning of the creation of God." "Every family in heaven and earth" must range itself, in the divine category, under Christ. All this will ever be thankfully owned by every spiritual mind; yea, the very enunciation of it sends a thrill through the Christian's heart. All who are led of the Spirit will rejoice in every unfolding of the personal glories of the Son; nor can they tolerate, for a single instant, anything derogatory thereto. Let the Church be raised to the loftiest heights of glory, it will be her joy to bow at the feet of Him who stooped to raise her, by virtue of His completed sacrifice, into union with Himself; who, having satisfied, in the fullest manner, all the claims of divine justice, can gratify all the divine affections by making her inseparably one with Himself, in all His infinite acceptableness with the Father, and in His eternal glory. "He is not ashamed to call them brethren."

NOTE. I purposely forbear entering upon the subject of the offerings in chap. 29, inasmuch as we shall have the various classes of offerings, in all their minute detail, fully before us in the Book of Leviticus, if the Lord will.